individual Curriculum Development

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

I’m not sure what option I’m choosing for my curriculum development, but these are my thoughts.

The concept of power and its manifestations has been intriguing to me. Not only as Americans are we inundated with various advertisements trying to grab our attention, but also there’s an amount of freedom that as individuals we have to consume products, knowledge, and other experiences. Power is an abstract term that can be used to both demonstrate freedom/s and also to control others.

I would like to somehow use the notion of power in both an abstract and concrete form. I would also like to look at power as a soft form and a hard form.

My basic notion is that the ideology of people creates a hierarchy, that then in turn creates a social structure for a moral belief system or code of ethics, that socially controls the majority of people in the world.

I also sense that power can be exhibited through political, artistic, and cultural exploration. Recently, I became interested in studying flags and how they are put together. What do the designs, symbols, and colors represent? For students in the United States, there is a Pledge of Allegiance, but do other countries also have some type of pledge that is said prior to the start of a school day.

My second thought is the idea of constructing walls, both concrete and political. What are walls being built? I would discuss the idea of conscription. I would talk about protection and a sense of identity. I always go back to the wall between Mexico and the United States.

I would also want to develop questions that discuss the notion of hierarchy as having some type of power and what groups are on the fringes or are the minority groups--where is there some type of discrimination for not fitting into a group.

Today, it’s very easy to see in the United States because we live within the cultural constraints. In Cairo, there was an issue with people from Sudan. In Iraq there’s an issue between the Shites and the Sunnis--two break-off Muslim groups. I think in China there is going to be issue with people from various provinces and people.

I think this is where I’m headed. The direction that I’m spinning.

[Anonymous]

Here is my other idea for curriculum development. In my English 3/4 elective courses, Thanatology (the study of death) and World Humanities (the study of culture), students end the semester's worth of work with an Exhibition Project. The Exhibition Project requires students in groups of 4-5 to research a topic (that answers the essential question of the course) and present their findings to the class. This is not a presentation, no, the students must teach the class about their topic for one class period, complete with activities for students to do, and an assessment of the class at the end of the Exhibition. Students really become the teachers in this project! I have the project broken up into small deadlines to ensure student success (otherwise, they would be too overwhelmed). To support them, I do the exhibition project myself; I complete a sample for each deadline for students to use as a model. In Thanatology, the essential question is: how do people cope with grief? I have studied Ancient Egypt and various African tribes for my "model Exhibition" in the past. Now, I would like to create a new model exhibition for Thanatology: how do Chinese people deal with grief?
In World Humanties, I have no such model exhibition: in fact, this year I used the Thanatology model with a few modest adaptations. I felt so guilty. At any rate, I can use my experience in China to create such a model exhibition, which will answer the course's essential question: what do a culture's traditions, politics, religion, folktales, and art reveal about the culture's values? its people?
Just a bit about what the students do in this project--a glimpse into the small deadlines. Students brainstorm ideas for the essential question, divide the topic among group members, then each group member finds three sources of information, brings that information back to the group to make sure that there is no overlap. Students learn note-taking skills on research, create a Works Cited, create a thesis statement that reflects the conclusion of their research, create something (an essay, a painting, a children's story) that proves their thesis, write a letter to me that explains the connection between what they've created and their thesis. (And that's just the individual work). As a group, they link their individual thesis statements into a group thesis statement that guides the group's presentation; they create activities and visuals to engage their audience; they create and grade a quiz that the class takes at the end of the presentation--this quiz serves to motivate the audience to participate in the presentation; it also teaches the group how well that they were able to teach the concepts to the class.
Wow! It's a lot of work! For each one of the steps, I create a model. I know that you think this is too much, but there is so much value in my creation of a model project. One: students say "you write too much", but invariably, they write more in response to my expectation: the model is a very clear visual of my expectations. Two: I am reminded of the difficulty involved in the project, therefore, I have more sympathy for my students. Three: I see which parts of the project need revision, or more importantly, I see how the order of the deadlines sometimes needs to be reworked. It's been a wonderful experience for me; I can't wait to create new models with what I find in China and Japan!

[Anonymous]

Hello all,

I posted my curriculum plan under the power and manifestations group, but will also attach it here. I created a power point presentation that outlines my thoughts.

Dana

[Anonymous]

I generally use backward planning in which I start with the ideas and information that I want to teach and then create lessons and activities to teach that material. Though I have an idea of what we are going to experience in China and Japan, I'm sure I'm going to see a lot I can't even imagine now that I will want to incorporate into my lessons. With this qualifying preface, I do have a general outline of what I would, at this time, like to do with my experiences from our trip.

Of course, medieval China and medieval Japan are units in the 7th grade World History curriculum that I teach. In addition, as I have tried to emphasize this semester in particular, China had a major impact on the growth of trade, technology, disease, and other aspects of life that brought great changes to Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. Just in terms of technology, without the introduction of paper, printing, the compass and gunpowder, the history of these all these lands would certainly have been very different indeed.
I would begin by reviewing what all my students should have learned from each civilization that we had studied, namely, how to analyze the basic progression of civilizations.
They should know about the unity and order established by the Qin Dynasty, the growth of trade, prosperity and culture during the Han, the corruption and civil war that led to the fall of the Han, and, after a period of disorder, the reunification and establishment of order again under the Sui Dynasty (despite the CA Standards assertion that this happened under the Tang Dynasty.) With this lead-in to the Tang and Song Dynasties, I plan to go more deeply into specific aspects of Chinese culture, i.e., the political and economic structures, lifestyles, and cultural contributions of these, and other dynasties of China. To do this, I will use not only the ideas and materials I have gathered over the past years, but, I will be able to include materials from this study tour as well.
In the past, I have done interactive lessons on Chinese calligraphy, New Year traditions, landscape painting, and inventions, among others. I hope now to include interactive lessons on travel and architecture in China and Japan. These two areas are important not only for their own sake, but because they affected and represented the vitality of economic and political power of their times. The grandness of these building projects was certainly not soley, or even primarily for aesthetic reasons. I plan to use large photos and realia from the tour to create an environment in my classroom that my students can experience as they "tour" China, or Japan in my classroom. They wil also be playing roles as they do this--silk merchant, peasant farmer, tax collector, soldier, etc.--as they move about the lands and waterways that I have set up in my classroom. This way, not only will all be learning from the photos, captions, and realia that they will see and touch, but they will experience it from the perspective of the role they will be playing. I did something similar to this this year in teaching about the growth of trade in medieval Europe, and it seemed to be quite successful.

I will also use the material from the tour to connect these learnings to present day China and Japan, and show how many traditions have been carried forward, some modified, and some changed altogether. Evaluations for all the tour related lessons will be in the form of projects such as trade maps, posters and models, and of course questions on the tests for these units.

These are, as I said, preliminary plans, and I have no doubt that I will see much that I will want to add to my lessons.

[Anonymous]

Xian, as a city, is a wonderful window into China’s role in the Middle Ages. From here, one can see China’s connections with points west and south. Most strikingly, Islam’s presence in China as well that of Buddhism’s.

Much can be done with the fact that Xian acted as the eastern terminus of the web of Silk Roads threaded into China. Since there is so much emphasis on the flowering of culture during the Tang Dynasty, much can be stressed regarding the Tang’s openness to trade.

Most interesting to me, is the Muslim quarter and it’s effect on the culture of this ancient capital city.

Another poignant example of cultural exchange is the Blue Goose Pagoda and the sacred textshoused within it’s walls.

Of course, there exists more. Xian would be the perfect city to plan a sort of TCI tour of the city, a lesson plan akin to the Florence walking tour.

[Anonymous]

I love my “Power: Uses & Manifestations” group. I love our ideas and our collaboration but I have not posted my individual curriculum development plan because I have been racking my brain to find a way to connect our ideas to a NEW lesson plan that I had not previously created and to the California 6th Grade Ancient History Standards. I created a very extensive unit for the original seminar assignment and I have decided the best way to include our “power” ideas is to go back to each of my 26 lessons and to add connections to the power/architecture idea as we come across them during our trip.

For my new curriculum development plan, I have decided, like Dana, that I would like to have a theme running through all my units from Early Humans to Ancient Rome. I love the idea of using the architecture connection and plan to incorporate what our team learns and develops into my existing lessons. My own idea is to have the theme of “encountering ancient traditions in modern life” into all my units. For Early Humans, Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, India, Greece, Rome, and of course China, I would like to have a unit where students discover the legacies of each of the ancient civilizations in their modern day lives. The obvious rationale for this is that the learning experience always improves when students can make connections to themselves and to their own lives.

For Ancient China, I plan to develop a unit where students will learn about the practices of modern Chinese families such as ancestor veneration, birth ceremonies, funeral ceremonies, weddings, Chinese names, family structure, filial piety, etc. Then they will develop a project to show how the practices of modern Chinese families reflect ancient traditions. Finally they will be asked to find influences of these ancient traditions in their own lives.

What I hope to be able to do on our trip is to collect photographs and artifacts of modern Chinese life reflecting some of these ancient traditions. I hope I may be lucky enough to photograph a funeral, a wedding, a family of many generations, an example of filial piety in practice, and all sorts of traditions I haven’t even learned about yet.

I hope it is okay that my individual plan is not completely connected to our specific “power group” ideas but I needed to develop something that relates to my specific 6th grade standards and to my already developed Ancient China curriculum. I still believe I will gain great insights from working with our group and many ideas that I can use throughout all my lesson plans on Ancient China and that I will be able to continue to contribute to the group as well.

Linda Zarou

[Anonymous]

I posted my curriculum plans under the "Growing Up Group" thread. If anyone has feedback, I'd love to hear your ideas.

Tracy, I really enjoy reading your materials and want to thank you for the information you gave me on East Asian literature. It has been useful, and I'm bringing a few books to read on the trip. I can't believe you read every book on that list; you are a faster, more dedicated reader than I.

I'm excited about tomorrow.
Courtney Lockwood

[Anonymous]

Proposed Unit Plan Focus
Geographic, Political, Economic, Religious, and Social Structures of China and Japan

Rationale:
By focusing on the five aspects listed above I will compile information that supports 6th and 7th grade standards and that also extend into 10th and 11th grade standards. Prior to 6th grade students have no formal knowledge of either countries history. By 7th grade students should have been taught ancient Chinese history, and by High School, students should have basic knowledge of Japanese and Chinese relations with the west, particularly the United States in the late 1800's.

This unit will introduce students to the five characteristics listed above and will help them achive mastery of the standards. I plan on starting with an activity that will tap into students prior knowledge (7th graders) and lead into the topics they must learn in 7th grade. There will be a small amount of teacher lecture and students notes but for the most part, students will be in collaborative learning groups and will learn about each aspect of Chinese and Japanese civilzation. With each topic there will be a project of sorts they will have to create. Projects will vary, such as a poster on the religions (TCI) or graphic organizer showing the social structures of each, and so on.

In addition to the student projects produced, student will be asked to take a formal assessment on the contect they were to learn. The actual lesson plan will be very detailed (Step by Step - EDI) and will use lots of interactive activities from TCI and my own creations. At the heart of the lessons will be the video that I will create while in Asia that will bring it to life for my students who for the most part have never left the city of Pomona let alone know anything about Asian culture.

My project that I hope to create will be a video that is already scripted while in Asia or that can be narrated when back home using Imovie.

[Anonymous]

Hi!
I'd like to focus on East Asia and the environment. I think this is an alarming global issue that requires a lot of attention. As a social studies teacher I often make time to discuss current events and relevant social issues in my classroom. Developing a unit on the environment and our country's economic and political ties with Asia is an area of concern that I'd like to research further for a future lesson.

[clay dube]

hi alice,

yours might be the last pre-trip post! see you soon.

smiling,
clay

[Anonymous]

Before we left for the trip I posted my curriculum plans in the economic changes section. However, I have decided to change my topic. Originally I planned to create a lesson on economic change in China. Though this will still be a topic I focus upon in my curriculum, I was having trouble coming up with an angle different from my other group members that I would use in my classroom.

My new topic will be the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I was quite moved by our visit to the memorial and would like to incorporate the information I learned there into my curriculum. This unit will be more aligned with the standards so I think more useful to my curriculum in the long run. Already we conduct a mock trial in class over the controversial decision to drop the bomb. I would like to revamp my curriculum by better portraying the Japanese perspective of this incident for my students. I have not been devoting enought time to this and realize my curriculum previously has been too biased towards the American viewpoint. We also spend time discussing the proliferation of nuclear weapons in my classroom so I think this topic will tie into that discussion well.

I am very excited about my new project so hope my change in topic doesn't cause any problems.

[Anonymous]

Sharon, here are a couple of resources on your subject:

(1) Barefoot Gen - video in animation format from Japanese perspective on dropping of the bomb. They sell it at Amazon.com and can probably be rented from Blockbuster or Hollywood.

(2) Black Rain - a book by Japanese author Masuji Ibuse. It's a novel with lots of historical facts.

[Anonymous]

THanks for the resources you suggested. I have posted a summary of my unit plan in the Economic Changes group section. I am done with my unit plan and reflective essay. Hooray!! This was hard work.

[Anonymous]

As part of my curriculum development project, I wanted to share with students three different responses to our visit to the Terra Cotta Warriors: even though we visited the site on the same day, different people noticed different things. It becomes a lesson in point of view, and also the bias each person has when looking at a historical artifact. We were so busy that people weren't able to write down their thoughts--so I took what was said in conversation and transcribed the ideas here. Since it is my interpretation of what was said, I wanted to write it here for the speaker's approval. If any of these statements need revision, please let me know. I want to be accurate.

Reactions to the Terra Cotta Warriors

What the visitors said:

Clay, Professor of Asian Studies, UCLA: Think about the amount of power/control it would take to produce such a grand monument--not everyone who worked on this monument did so voluntarily. It is an impressive feat.

Ellen, Chinese native and our tour guide: One day I was talking to a group on the first tour of the day. I was standing there looking at the warriors, with all the warriors looking at me, and I got the chills--I felt a sense of pride in my country. The emperor, though cruel, did two great things: the Great Wall and the Terra Cotta Warriors. In the beginning, I didn't feel pride, but many tourists have said "Ellen, you should be proud" and I have developed pride.

Tracy, High School English Teacher in California: What an ego Emperor Qin had! The purely symbolic memorial, like a single statue or building (like we do in the United States), was not enough--he needed an entire military force! The detail of each individual soldier is so painstakingly specific; the man obviously wanted to make sure he was immortalized.

[Anonymous]

I was trying to think of ways to develop lessons that needed the teacher actually being in the culture component--I came up with an idea for my literature circles project but I think it could be adapted to a history class. In the literature circles project, I usually "book talk" eight or nine possible books, then students choose from these selections. Instead of "booktalking" the books, I've thought of a new idea using our experiences on the study tour. Around the room, I will post written descriptions of our experiences, on topics such as the following:

--Seeing the woman with feet that had been bound in the retirement home
--A geisha in the passenger seat of a Mercedes
--Our tour guide telling us that many Chinese do not practice religion today

After reading the descriptions at each station, students will choose the one that most intrigued them, writing a journal in response to it. The station that the student picked will be connected to the literature circles book that explores the same issue as what was written in the description. For example, the geisha desciption matches Memoirs of a Geisha; the bound feet fits with Women of the Silk; the tour guide's comment with Red Scarf Girl.

It's an interesting way to show that the issues in the books they're reading are still relevant; it will also prevent students from selecting books based on length or ease of reading.

In history, you could let students read glimpses from your experiences, then have students discuss the connection between historical events and your experiences in China/Japan this year.

[Author]

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